Look back: SS America and SS United States

SS America, the nation's merchant queen, built by the Newport News Shipbuilding, returns here in 1953 to undergo repairs and annual hull and engine survey after a heavy winter in the North Atlantic.

SS America, the nation's merchant queen, built by the Newport News Shipbuilding, returns here in 1953 to undergo repairs and annual hull and engine survey after a heavy winter in the North Atlantic. (Daily Press Archive / Daily Press)

This Mariners' Museum photo shows the SS America, foreground, and the SS United States passing in New York harbor following the completion of the larger ship at Newport News Shipbuilding in 1952.

This Mariners' Museum photo shows the SS America, foreground, and the SS United States passing in New York harbor following the completion of the larger ship at Newport News Shipbuilding in 1952. (Courtesy of The Mariners' Museum)

Newport News Shipbuilding built this pair of passenger liners. The SS America (built in the late 1930s) is gone, but efforts continue to preserve the SS United States (built in the early 1950s). Here are archive and recent photographs of the two ships.